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Lending Library Modules Available

Please contact us, at UD K-12 Engineering, to borrow one of these units for your classroom or organization. Modules may be borrowed for two weeks. Most modules must be picked up from the UD K-12 Engineering Office (at the UD College of Engineering, 146 DuPont Hall, Newark, DE). Contact us for more information regarding any specific unit.

Using a small motor and wooden platform, students can mount balsa wood structures and see how they would fare in a simulated earthquake. Useful for Physics, Engineering, Human Impact and Earth Sciences units. The unit is approximately 2.5 feet square. Comes with enough materials for 5 groups of 2 kids each (10 kids). There is presently no lesson plan, but is easy to adapt to your classroom.

Punkin Chunkin'Use your powers of prediction to make a hypothesis about how far and where your punkin (a ping-pong ball) will go. This specially designed stomp-launcher will shoot a ball across the room, helping to demonstrate arc, force, and other concepts in a very approachable way. Launcher, materials, and lesson plan provided.

Audience

Pre K–Grade 6

Collision Events

Using a ramp, cars and shaving cream, this unit helps students to explore potential energy in an accessible and fun way! All materials and lesson plan provided.

Audience

Pre K–Grade 2

Jumping Rings

Demonstrates basic concepts of electricity and magnetism with a dramatic jump of a metal ring. The principle of operation is similar to a rail gun. The unit comes with a lesson plan, if needed.

We recommend that an engineer accompany this unit to facilitate its safe operation.

Audience

Grades 2–8

Ray OpticsDemonstrates the basic optical components used in every day life, including lenses and mirrors.

The unit includes all the materials needed and a lesson plan.

Audience

Grades 5–12

Human Eye Model
Used in combination with the ray optics equipment to demonstrate the anatomy and optical properties of the human eye.

The unit includes all the materials needed and a lesson plan.

Audience

Grades K–12

Light, Color, and Spectroscopy
Filters, prisms and diffraction gratings can be used to separate white light into different colors. Looking at the specific colors emitted by a material can tell us a lot about the material structure and the physical processes that happen inside that material. The unit includes all the materials needed and a lesson plan.

Audience

Grades 6–12

Quantum Pinball

Provides a hands-on demonstration of the existence of quantized energy levels, including the s, p, d orbitals of natural atoms. The demo allows students to understand that atoms or bulk materials may be capable of absorbing only specific wavelengths (energies) of electromagnetic radiation. This concept underlies a variety of technologies from microwave ovens to photovoltaics. The unit is approximately 3 1/2 feet long. It comes with a lesson plan.

Designed primarily for AP Physics, but scalable for all Physics classes, the purpose of this lab is to help students learn how solar panels produce electricity from the Sun, to observe how changing the angle of the solar panel relative to the Sun affects the voltage and current, to experience how scientists collect and analyze data, to graph the data, and finally to compare the result to a known quantity.

Forces and the Transfer of Energy Energy Interacting With Materials: The Transformation and Conservation of Energy

Audience

Grades 9–12

The Rise of Solar TechnologyA series of math and science lessons in which the students learn about electrical load and how to calculate household electrical needs and design an appropriate photovoltaic array for a hypothetical home. Students also will learn about how the orientation of a solar cell affects its performance, and series and parallel circuits.

Audience

Grades 9–12

Photons, Band Gaps, & Solar Panels

This unit teaches students about light spectra, how electrons and photons behave, and how solar cells convert solar energy into electricity. In the lab, students will use solar cells, multimeters, and different light sources to gather their own data for analysis.

Standards Addressed

Standard I: Nature & Application of Science and Technology

Strands: Understanding the Abilities of Scientific Inquiry

Science, Technology, and Society

History and Context of Science

Standard II: Materials and Their Properties

Strands:Properties and Structure of Materials

Material Technology

Standard III: Energy and Its Effects

Strands:The Forms and Sources of Energy

Forces and the Transfer of Energy

Energy Interacting With Materials:

The Transformation and Conservation of Energy

Audience

Grades 9–12

The I-V Curve: A Mathematical Perspective

Students will collect data, create scatterplots, determine mathematical models, manipulate exponential functions to determine parameters and investigate the effects of lurking variables on functions using a multimeter and solar panel. Comes with all materials needed and lesson plans.

This module is designed to introduce students to photovoltaic (PV) absorber layer materials, the bulk material of the solar cell. These absorber layer materials are broken down into two main groups—crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV and thin film PV. Through videos and online tutorials, students will learn the basic functioning of solar cells and about the role of scientists in developing these new technologies. With this background information in place, students will then work in groups to analyze a set of documents including graphs, tables, and news articles. Students will use information from the Ask an Expert video and document analysis to develop a 1–2 minute elevator pitch to address the prompt, “You are on the board of a solar cell manufacturing company. Develop a 1–2 minute elevator pitch in support of appropriating $10 million dollars to either a thin film PV or a c-Si PV research project.”

Forces and the Transfer of Energy Production, Consumption, and Application of Energy

Audience

Grades 9–12

Converting Light to Energy: Comparing the Mechanisms of Energy Conversion

Compare the mechanisms of energy conversion in photosynthesis and solar cells and to investigate the photovoltaic properties of solar cells made from plant pigments/dyes. The focus of this unit is the nanocrystalline dye-sensitized cell, which is a newly developed renewable energy technology. The DSSC resembles photosynthesis in that it uses an organic dye like chlorophyll to absorb light and produce a flow of electrons. Like photosynthesis, a molecular process using a suspension of nanometer size materials enables the cyclic flow of electrons. Two methods for facilitating the energy transformation in an organic solar cell involve the use of the following:

Manganese:Manganese is the catalyst found in the photosynthetic pigments of plants. A single atom of manganese triggers the natural process that uses sunlight to split water. Using manganese in an artificial system directly mimics the biology found in plants.

Dye-sensitized titanium dioxide: Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a stable metal used in a dye-sensitized solar cell, also known as a Graetzel cell, which has been around since the 1990s. In a Graetzel cell, the TiO2 is suspended in a layer of dye particles that capture the sunlight and then expose it to the TiO2 to start the reaction.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Get your creative and electrical engineering skills ready to design a wand that not only looks good, but lights your way through basic circuitry concepts. All materials included, with lesson plan.

Audience

Grades 3–5

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Polymer F/X Make-up

Did you know that make-up is designed by chemical engineers? Using liquid latex (a natural polymer), tissue paper, fake blood, and grease paint stage makeup, create a realistic-looking wound the way special effects artists do. Materials for 10 kids and a lesson plan are provided in the module.

Audience

Grades 3–8

MATERIALS SCIENCE ENGINEERING

Chocolate Composites

Eat your way through a lesson about brittle and ductile fractures, designed by UD K-12 Engineering and Composite Materials students. It’s a new way to learn about how materials function in our world. Materials for 10 kids and lesson plan provided.